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Friday, September 6, 2013

Tribute to Bubba

I have a quilter animal lover friend on twitter that has a beautiful senior golden retriever that has some health issues. The last photo she posted of him on twitter just had me melting, he is one of those dogs you just want to go up to and hug. I was compelled to try to make an art quilt - I won't say of him because when you see the photo, my quilt isn't all that much like the photo as he is more reddish in life but will say mu quilt is inspired by Bubba "the golden one".

 

The golden one


This is Bubba - he is beloved by his family so gets lots of hugs

To make my version of Bubba, I printed out his photo, then traced the his basic lines on the photo with a thick black sharpie. This goes thru the paper to the other side, so I can see it better being black on white. I should have a photo of this part but wasn't thinking about describing it, just doing it:-) I then took a white cotton and traced those lines onto it with pencil. Doing it this way gives you a mirror image though, which you could trace again to get back to the original if you really wanted to.

 

 

So then after pinning the cotton down on some foam, I lightly sprayed with water and used acrylic paints mixed with clear hair gel as a medium. Yes, clear hair gel - or you can use Aloa sunburn gel. This makes the acrylic easier to work with and blend on the fabric.

 

Adding the ever so important little bit of white on the eyes.

 

I ironed alittle bit of fusible just around the edges, cut bubba out and found a background I liked. Back and batt, then quilted.

 

And quilted some more :-)

 

But really, how could you go wrong with a face like that!

 

11 comments:

  1. Love it!!! Your thread painting really adds the "punch" to this piece too. Thanks for sharing it and your process.

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  2. You capture a lot of emotion in his portrait. Good job.

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  3. Well now, this is a wonderful quilt and a great journal of your process. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  4. you totally captured the sweetness. The tutorial was well done too.
    Love a pup...
    LeeAnna Paylor

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  5. Thanks for showing the process and how you "caught" this dog's expression. The quilting is very interesting.
    best, nadia

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  6. This is really wonderful! A great tribute to Bubba and it does fit him exactly. Really wonderful. (Or did I already say that?)

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  7. Carol, you sure do make it look easy. It's great!

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  8. I love your Bubba! What a fine tribute to the golden one! I hope things work out for Bubba. I know what it is to have a beloved old dog.

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  9. What a lovely tribute. You've captured Bubba's expression so well. Your friend will be touched and heartened, I'm sure. :-)

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  10. OMG! I'm sitting here with tears running down my face. I can't believe you did this. There isn't a big enough hug in the world for you. This is truly incredible and the Golden One and I are so touched. Truly...speechless. xoxo

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  11. Beautiful tribute and I love that you showed us your process too.

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